The ancient city of Pergamon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in modern-day Bergama, Türkiye, was a sophisticated Hellenistic capital and subsequent Roman provincial center, renowned for its stratified urban design and cultural significance. The city's multi-layered structure, meticulously adapted to its steep hillside location, is archaeologically divided into an upper acropolis and a lower city, each serving distinct civic functions and evolving over centuries of occupation.

The upper city, or Acropolis, served as the fortified royal and administrative core, showcasing monumental Hellenistic architecture, including the royal palaces, the famous Library of Pergamon, the steepest theatre in the ancient world, and the immense Great Altar of Zeus. Below, the sprawling lower city accommodated a growing populace and featured a complex of public and social structures. These included the multi-tiered Gymnasium, the Lower Agora (marketplace), and sanctuaries for deities such as Demeter and Hera.

Archaeologically, the site is a significant focus of German and Turkish excavations, with findings spanning from the Hellenistic through the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman periods. This rich archaeological record reveals a palimpsest of urban development and cultural influences, from the grandeur of Hellenistic marble buildings to Roman imperial structures like the Temple of Trajan and the Asclepieion healing center, built in the plains below. The enduring legacy of this multi-layered urban center provides unique insights into the advanced engineering, artistic achievements, and societal organization of the ancient world.

circa

Pergamon, located in the region of Mysia in northwestern Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), emerged as a significant cultural and political center during the Hellenistic period. Originally a minor settlement, it rose to prominence under the Attalid dynasty, which ruled from circa 281 BCE to 133 BCE. The Attalids transformed Pergamon into a powerful kingdom, strategically positioned between the Seleucid Empire to the east and the emerging Roman Republic to the west. The city became renowned not only for its military and administrative significance but also for its remarkable urban planning, monumental architecture, and patronage of the arts and learning.

Under the Attalids, Pergamon developed one of the most celebrated libraries of the ancient world, second only to Alexandria (Egypt), attracting scholars, poets, and philosophers. The city also saw the construction of grand temples, an extensive acropolis, a theater, and the famous Altar of Zeus, exemplifying the fusion of Greek artistic traditions with local Anatolian influences. In 133 BCE, the last Attalid king, Attalus III, bequeathed Pergamon to Rome, marking the end of its independence. Under Roman administration, the city continued to flourish as a regional cultural hub, retaining its architectural splendor and educational prestige well into the Imperial period.

circa 350 BCE

Acropolis of Pergamon
The Acropolis of Pergamon occupies the summit and terraced slopes of a steep, conical hill rising some 330 meters above the plain of the Kaikos (modern Bakırçay) River in western Asia Minor. It functioned as the political, religious, and dynastic nucleus of the Attalid kingdom (circa 3rd–2nd century BCE). The site demonstrates the characteristic adaptation of Hellenistic urbanism to topography, with an architectural program that exploited the natural gradient through engineered terraces connected by monumental stairways and colonnaded stoas.

At the core of the upper plateau stood the Sanctuary of Athena Polias Nikephoros, Pergamon’s oldest and most symbolically charged cult complex, dating to the early 3rd century BCE. The sanctuary, organized around a Doric temple and enclosed by a stoa on three sides, was closely associated with the royal palace complex and the Library of Pergamon, which together formed the intellectual and ceremonial center of the city. The Great Altar of Zeus and Athena, built circa 180–160 BCE under Eumenes II, dominated the southern terrace with its monumental frieze of the Gigantomachy, representing both a religious dedication and an ideological statement of Attalid supremacy in Asia Minor.

Descending from the Athena precinct along the southern slope are the Theater of Pergamon, among the steepest of the Hellenistic world with a cavea capacity of roughly 10,000 spectators, and the Sanctuary of Dionysus Kathegemon, which formed an architecturally integrated complex at the theater’s base. To the east, the Sanctuary of Demeter, founded in the 4th century BCE and later expanded by the Attalids, occupied a lower terrace, reflecting the continuity of older cult practices into the Hellenistic royal landscape. The Upper and Middle Gymnasia, arranged on sequential terraces below the theater zone, illustrate the integration of education, athletics, and civic identity within the acropolis system.

At the northern edge of the plateau, the royal palace quarter—comprising the Palace of Eumenes, arsenal buildings, and barracks—was enclosed within the fortification circuit walls that date largely from the early Hellenistic period and were expanded under Eumenes II and Attalus II. The Temple of Trajan (Trajaneum), erected under Roman imperial patronage in the early 2nd century CE, crowns the highest terrace, reflecting the continuity of Pergamon’s acropolis as a locus of imperial cult and urban prestige well into the late Roman Empire period. Excavations conducted by the German Archaeological Institute since the 19th century CE have revealed a continuous occupation sequence from the Archaic period through Late Roman phases, confirming the acropolis as one of the most architecturally coherent expressions of Hellenistic urban statecraft.

circa 350-250 BCE

Lower Pergamon
The Lower city of Pergamon, extending south and southwest from the base of the acropolis hill, developed primarily during the Hellenistic and Roman Imperial periods as the civic, residential, and commercial heart of the metropolis. Its expansion corresponded to the city’s transformation from a fortified royal seat into a populous urban center following the consolidation of the Attalid kingdom in the 2nd century BCE. The area contained the Lower Agora, civic basilicas, residential quarters, and several sanctuaries that served both religious and public functions distinct from the dynastic cults of the upper city.

Architecturally, the lower terraces illustrate the urban diffusion characteristic of mature Hellenistic capitals. The Lower Agora, established beneath the gymnasia complex, formed the commercial and administrative core, bordered by stoas and warehouses. South of this zone lay the Sanctuary of Hera Basileia, identified from inscriptions and architectural remains dating to the early 2nd century BCE, emphasizing the coexistence of traditional cults alongside the newer Attalid religious institutions. The Temple of Serapis (the later “Red Basilica”), a massive brick complex constructed under Hadrian in the first half of the 2nd century CE, marks the most prominent Roman addition to the lower city; its architectural scale and Egyptianizing iconography attest to Pergamon’s enduring religious syncretism and urban prosperity under imperial rule.

Beyond the city proper, at a distance of roughly 3 kilometers southwest across the Selinus valley, stood the Asclepieion of Pergamon, a major healing sanctuary dedicated to Asclepius, functioning both as a religious center and a proto-medical institution from the fourth century BCE through Late Antiquity. Connected to the city by a sacred colonnaded road, the Asclepieion included temples, sleeping chambers for incubation rituals, and therapeutic facilities, paralleling the famed Asclepieion sanctuaries at Epidaurus and Kos. To the east of the lower terraces, the remains of a Roman amphitheater, baths, and necropoleis further delineate the city’s later expansion beyond its Hellenistic core.

circa 150 BCE

Altar of Zeus
The Great Altar of Pergamon, a monumental work of Hellenistic art and architecture, was constructed on the acropolis of the ancient city of Pergamon in the mid-2nd century BCE under the reign of King Eumenes II. Situated on a grand terrace, its prominent placement was a deliberate display of the Attalid dynasty's power, wealth, and cultural sophistication. The altar's most arresting feature is the colossal, high-relief marble frieze encircling its base, which depicts the Gigantomachy, the cosmic battle between the Olympian gods and the earth-born Giants. Carved with unprecedented dynamism, intense emotion, and intricate anatomical detail, the sculptures of the frieze are a prime example of the "Hellenistic Baroque" style, which departed from the serene classicism of earlier periods.

The theological and political allegory of the Gigantomachy—the triumph of divine order over chaos and barbarism—served to legitimize Attalid rule by drawing a parallel between the gods' victory and Pergamon's recent military successes against its own "barbarian" enemies, particularly the invading Gauls. In addition to this outer frieze, a smaller, inner frieze narrated the life of Telephus, the mythical founder of ancient Pergamon, further solidifying the Attalids' claim to a venerable Greek heritage. The altar's fragmented remains, painstakingly reconstructed in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, continue to provide invaluable insights into the artistic conventions, political ambitions, and cultural narrative of the Hellenistic age.